POTTSTOWN — How can Pottstown High School be labeled both “a low-achieving school” by the state on the one hand, but be named to a list of the nation’s best high schools by U.S. news and World Report on the other?

The answer is, it all depends on how you ask the question.

Confused?

You’re not alone.

Trying to determine how “good” a school or school district is can be a complicated business.

Which schools will make the cut depends almost entirely on what gets measured.

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So for example, two years ago when the Pennsylvania Department of Education labeled Pottstown High School a “low-achieving school,” it was due largely to its math scores on the standardized test called the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA.

Despite this contradictory information, it’s the negative label that lingers on, re-affirming perceptions, justified or not, that people have about Pottstown, Schools Superintendent Jeff Sparagana acknowledged.

He has hopes that the honor the school achieved this year — U.S. News & World Report gave the school a bronze medal in its annual “Best High Schools” edition — will help to change that perception, but he knows negative perceptions are often longer lived than their positive counterparts.

Nevertheless, the magazine’s rating is significant.

Of the 19,400 high schools in the country, Pottstown was among the 4,700 which received a gold, silver, or bronze medal.

The U.S. News recognition looked at test scores, but looked to see if Pottstown students were performing “better than statistically expected for the average student in the state” and also looked at whether Pottstown’s less-advantaged students were performing better than the state average.

Additional factors included the number of advanced placement courses offered factored by how many students take the courses and their performance on the end of year advanced placement exams

“This recognition is a clear indication that our work is being noticed and is one more reason to say that we are Proud to be from Pottstown,” Hartmann said.

The only other local high school included in the magazine’s rankings was Upper Perkiomen High School, which earned a silver medal.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” Sparagana said. “Here we got a bronze medal and we didn’t think they knew we existed.”

While pleased by the recognition, Sparagana is a firm believer that Pottstown students need to compete where it counts — in the real world — and so he places limited stock in honors such as this, just as he knows labels like “low-achieving” don’t really reflect the education provided by the district.

“It’s all relative. It depends on what kind of targets they want you to hit, and yes, we have to hit them, but we know there is more to it,” he said during an interview last week.

“Our role is to prepare our students to achieve at the highest level, and we need to do that by adjusting and adapting our education in a way that compliments their style of learning,” he said.

“We want graduates who know how to work in a team, how to think critically, how to problem solve and who are tech-savvy,” said Sparagana.

Community Relations Director John Armato, an unapologetic Pottstown booster, has an even more radical idea.

“To me, the real proof comes when you move beyond test scores and you have the luxury that I have, to come across a student from our district 20 years after graduation and you find out what they’re doing then,” said Armato. “Are they a productive member of society? Are they well-rounded? Are they pursuing their passion? To me, that’s the measure of success.”

But, he acknowledged, few assessment-hungry parents or politicians are willing to wait 20 years for an answer to “how good are the schools?”

Sparagana said he is encouraged by the new “school performance profile” system that Pennsylvania has adopted.

“It creates a more nuanced picture and recognizes the value of making progress; it recognizes the importance of traditional testing, that will always be a piece, but it also recognizes making progress with students who do not traditionally do well on standardized tests,” he said.

In its first year, Pottstown earned a score of 79.5, well above passing and just a few decimal points shy of what the Department of Education considers to be above average.

“We’re not where we want to be in terms of achievement, but the profile also shows that we’re making real progress toward that goal,” he said.

And that progress is being made, Sparagana noted, with a student body that enters schools not as highly prepared as those in neighboring districts.

To address that short-coming, the district’s nationally recognized early education partnership program PEAK, starts at birth, delivering books to parents; hosting family literacy nights and helping to train teachers in partner nursery schools in the district’s curriculum — all to help students be “ready to learn” when they enter kindergarten, Sparagana said.

The effort is paying off, said Sparagana, noting that the first students in that program are now entering high school, where a robotics team has is now underway, with the help of some teacher volunteers.

Whether that will mean more bronze, silver or gold medals for Pottstown in the future, Sparagana is too savvy to say.

One thing is for sure, he acknowledged, its unlikely that the Pottstown schools will stop being measured and assessed and graded any time soon.

“We just have to keep doing our best, motivating our staff and our students and keep moving forward,” he said.

About the Author

Evan Brandt has worked for The Mercury since November 1997. His beat includes Pottstown, the surrounding townships and the Pottstown and Pottsgrove school districts, as well as other varied general topics like politics, the environment and education. Reach the author at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
or follow Evan on Twitter: @PottstownNews.